"Over the Cliff" by Crooks and Liars bloggers John Amato and David Neiwert is, so far, a bit of a slog -- it's rehashing a lot of what I know in a dry and judgmental way.

2

People forget that Sean Hannity was informing viewers of Barack Obama's "radical ties" long before Glenn Beck hauled out a chalkboard. Conservative Victory puts Hannity back in the Obama-bashing vanguard.

3

Mark Lilla's "Tea Party Jacobins" is the first meditation on the movement that seems to have struck a chord.

So how doomed is Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah?

Doomed enough for my colleague Amy Gardner to capture this bit of wisdom about him from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), whose ostensible job is to help him get reelected.

[H]e acknowledged the vulnerability of Sen. Robert F. Bennett in Utah, who is on the verge of a convention upset next weekend, but he noted that “the good news, from my perspective, is that a Republican wins the seat regardless of the outcome.”

This Monday's Salt Lake Tribune poll really drew national attention to Bennett's plight. But there's disagreement in Utah over whether that poll or one in the Deseret News that ran on Sunday is more reflective of Bennett's strength. Bennett actually jumped on the news of that poll to declare it a "two-man race" between him and attorney Mike Lee -- it's the one survey that shows him in second place, even if it has 41 percent of convention delegates promising to oppose him.

"It's a very volatile situation," Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) told me yesterday. "The first time I ran I got around 60 percent at the convention and I was sure, the night before, that I wouldn't get that." (In Utah's system, a candidate who wins 60 percent support at the convention automatically becomes the party's nominee.)

"It's a very volatile situation. But second place, going in, is not a great place for a sitting senator to be."